Return/Shipment Policy

Shipping Method:

We ship all of our ants using UPS and USPS Mail. This method is very reliable, and has the fastest delivery time of any of the major carriers. All orders are shipped with tracking information, which is sent when the label is created, usually a day or two before the order reaches the post office. We only ship within the United States.


Shipping Times:

Generally you can expect delivery of your order 3-4 business days of packaging, and another 3-4 days it should arrive at your house.  Due to the complexity of shipping live ants, processing a batch of orders can take a couple days before the orders are delivered to the post office. If there is a particularly high volume of orders, such as during a sale, or if we have events over a weekend there can be a slight additional processing time as we work our way through the backlog. Exceptional circumstances, such as holidays or emergencies can increase the fulfillment time somewhat as well.

Generally orders that come in on Thursdays or Fridays (or sometimes late in the day on Wednesday) are processed the following Monday, since we don't ship over the weekends and would not be able to finish the shipping process if we started it late in the week.

Shipping Charges:

We charge a small shipping fee for every order. This is due to us using cooling packs and insulated shipping kits to make sure the ants travel safely to your household. 

Tracking:

When we ship your order, you will receive an automated confirmation email with a UPS tracking number. You can either track your order on our website, or use your tracking number at www.UPS.com. If you don't receive one, please contact us via email or the live chat.

Reshipment Policy (for Live-Arrival Guarantee): 

Ants that die in shipping will be reshipped if the customer wishes to do so, however, the customer will have to pay shipping. 


Live-Arrival Guarantee:

We guarantee that your ants will arrive alive. We do not provide refunds for live/perishable products, however we do provide a free reshipment policy for our live insects. Our live-arrival guarantee is subject to the following instructions and restrictions:

  • You must contact hello@theantvault.com or the live chat within 24 hours of your ant’s arrival to request a refund.

  • You must provide a photograph of what occurred.

  • Orders that have been delayed or mishandled by the carrier may not qualify.

  • Guarantee does not apply to worker ants that die in shipment, you might have some casualties, but as long as the queen is ok, you don't have to worry about this issue. 

​Here at The Ant Vault, we use insulated queen ant packaging and cooling packs with each shipment. Our shipment death rates are less than 1% and we aim to keep every customer happy. Please reach out if you feel like you are not satisfied with your purchase and I would be happy to help. 

Due to the summer heat, ants that are left in the mailbox or on the front porch for over an hour will have a chance at dying.

Otherwise if you want a money refund, we will have to charge 25% reversal fee and a shipping recharge fee if the package has not been shipped yet.

​NOTE: Many of the ants we sell (honeypot ants, harvester ants, etc.) are beginner ants! We will specifically list a specific species as intermediate or hard in our website, if not listed, it is a beginner species.

Returns:

We do not accept returns of live ants or any perishable items (such as food items).

​Sales:

All sales are final.